


The Hunt

by Addaisgrl



Category: Pillars of Eternity
Genre: F/M, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-09
Updated: 2018-03-09
Packaged: 2019-03-28 22:04:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,899
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13913094
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Addaisgrl/pseuds/Addaisgrl
Summary: Follow up to The Beast of Winter. Late game spoilers.





	The Hunt

“So what about it, Watcher? Which dog’s ass are you going to lick to get to the bottom of that pit in one piece? Or maybe you just plan to break your fall on those pillowy bosoms.”  
  
“Hey, I’m trying to eat here.” Edér’s tone was sharper than usual. The Eothasian wasn’t the only one in their party who was still trying to figure out why the Watcher would waste intimacy on Durance, but he had been watching over her longer than anyone except Aloth. It was hard not to stick his nose in.  
  
Thuwa sat polishing her shield and might have ignored both Durance’s impertinent question and Edér’s reply, but with these two, she could at least acknowledge the truth. “I have no idea. I suppose I should pray to Rymrgand, but he might consider my going to the druids a betrayal.”  
  
“Maybe sometimes betrayal is a kind of faith. A higher form, even.” Edér’s voice took on that mix of regret and determination he had a talent for.  
  
Durance spoke with his usual impatience. “You didn’t have a choice in being sent to the Ox.”  
  
“No. But the priests took me in.”  
  
“Then cast you out again,” he sneered.  
  
“Not exactly.”  
  
“You don’t honestly think they sent you out with that wandering hermit into the wastes as some kind of reward?”  
  
Durance seemed to mock her, but she knew that he pressed her to test her weaknesses, as he did with everyone. “Gilehl wasn’t a hermit. We ate better in the villages we visited than I had at the temple. Everyone welcomed us.”  
  
Edér’s tone was gentler. “But you must have left him for some reason.”  
  
“Yes.” Thuwa’s eyes were downturned, working at the shield. “Friends. A druid studies hard and there were pilgrimages and tests, but sometimes at night a few of us would sit around the fire and throw the stones or tell stories. They didn’t see me as cursed.” _A lot like this._ "And I was always drawn to that kind of magic."  
  
“Sounds like maybe Galawain is your man.” Hiravias had come up from the darkness, preceded first by a pungent smell.  
  
Thuwa glanced up. “You’re a druid, too, but not committed to Galawain. Not yet, anyway.”  
  
“Yes, but he only marked my eye, not my whole body. Seems like he might have plans for you.”  
  
The godlike flinched. "I'm not certain Galawain fathered me. Even if he did, I owe him no allegiance for it. He didn't claim me and hasn't spoken to me. Though I admit, my ways are more like his than any of the other gods'."

Her eyes caught Durance’s briefly. Before that first night in the cave, it had been a long time since a man had looked at her and touched her in the ways the old priest did. Since then, they had coupled again on occasion, at night in the warmth of her room in Brighthollow, or out on the road, her hands braced against a tree. Next to his own pox scars, her mottled skin didn’t warrant notice. She was convinced by now that his lust wasn't some kind of curiosity born of fetish. It was too raw for that. The anger that seemed to radiate heat from his skin gave an extra urgency to their passion. After one session when he had held her down so fiercely that his hands left a rash-like burn on her arms, he admitted to her that such ardor wasn't typical after his sickness. When he visited a brothel, spells had been necessary to pull off a satisfactory finish. With her, there had been no need.  
  
Hiravias would have gladly discussed sex had Thuwa spoken her thoughts aloud, but he was still pondering her dilemma. “You’re stuck between gods, like I am.”  
  
“Are you really stuck, Hiravias?" Thuwa turned back to him. "The fact that you think so seems to favor Wael. Questioning even your questions.”  
  
“Hadn’t thought about it that way. Makes doubt sound kind of sexy.”  
  
Durance snorted. “Doubt or faith, you think they care about that any more than which way your worm hangs? The only thing that matters is deeds. But what about Magran, Watcher?”  
  
“She didn’t answer my call in Teir Evron. Maybe she doesn’t like those of us from the frozen south. Or she would prefer I splatter myself on the pit floor.”  
  
“That sounds on point," he said bitterly.  
  
Edér had lit his pipe and was chewing on the end, but drew it out to speak. “Whatever decision you make, it’s yours. Some of ‘em have been questionable up to this point…” He gestured with the pipe towards Durance. “But it’s all worked out so far. I know you’ll make the right one.”  
  
“Thank you.” Thuwa nodded, grateful. “Whatever I decide, it has to be soon.”  
  
Later that night when the camp was already still, Thuwa crept to Durance’s bedroll and joined their two blankets to make a double covering. He acknowledged her presence with a sleepy grunt but no protest. They had done this enough by now that each had an instinctive rhythm. She knew where to lay her head so that her horns wouldn’t accidentally pierce his cheek if he moved in sleep. He knew that he could grasp her breast, but not reach between her legs if others were nearby. Most importantly, their shared body heat and the thump of his heartbeat against her cheek could lull Thuwa to sleep better than any potion she had tried. Sleep was not easy to come by for a Watcher.  
  
That night the rhythm of his heartbeat transformed into the loping thud of giant hooves on the frozen tundra. Fear melted her limbs but Thuwa was rooted as though ice encased her. The ground beneath her shook every time the great hooves scarred it. Finally the beast appeared, swallowing the horizon with its massive form, snakelike maggots trailing behind. Thuwa's mind grasped for a fire spell to melt the ice holding her. She had broken through enough to raise her flail when the aurochs' head changed into that of a great black wolf. It bore down upon her with astonishing speed, fangs bared, the maw large enough to rip her in half.  
  
Thuwa’s battle cry in the dream came out a strangled sound as she jumped awake. Now the only thudding she heard was her own heart. Durance’s staff-calloused hand moved up from her breast to smooth her hair.

“They both want to destroy me,” she whispered, despair and exhaustion nipping at her. "Why couldn't I follow nice gods, like Hylea?" Pallegina didn't think she was so nice, but there were degrees. She had to figure this out. Thuwa had trod across entire continents and commanded armies, but would end up a gibbering fool like Maerwald if she didn't. Then how many more lifetimes would it take to stop Thaos? How many would suffer for her failure?  
  
"Hylea, who sent you to kill a dragon for her vanity's sake?" Durance's hand gripped her chin. His mouth was close to her ear with the humid smell of his mead nightcap.“They are still testing you. Lean into it, woman. Don’t ask from them. Take.” The priest moved around to kiss her. His member stiffened briefly against her hip, but he released her mouth and after a few moments it went slack again and he fell to snuffling. As Thuwa succumbed to sleep, she vowed to stare down whatever beast charged at her this time. None did.  
  
***  
Some weeks later, as she and her companions all stood around the pit, Thuwa looked from one face to another, gaining courage with each one. Perhaps she had failed to stop Thaos in previous lifetimes because she had tried to do it alone. Finally, Durance took her hand, and the godlike met his eyes. He uttered one word. “Take.”  
  
With that she released his hand and stepped over the edge, the pit swallowing her into its mouth.  
  
_Galawain! Give me what you owe me._  
  
_Take._ Thuwa spied threads of essence all around her. She was plunging through them like a stone through a spider’s web. Reaching out, she grasped the strands, and ordered them to her will.  
  
***  
  
Fog crept across the green plains and black patches of the Dyrwood’s forests. Seen from the ramparts of Caed Nua, it might have been smoke, some echo of the wars in both the distant and not so distant past. There was already life in the bailey, the early drills of guardsmen, and the rattle of the south gate rolling up to let a cart pass within.

Thuwa took it in, recalling the first time she had seen the ruins of this place. Traveling south from the coast with the settler train, she had entertained the notion of finally settling down, but had no idea what that might look like. Not in wildest dreams had she imagined herself lady of a castle with dozens of retainers. Strange paths. She had made this place her own and wrested her mind back, but she still couldn't bring herself to believe it would last. Always the Beast of Winter waited to part stone from stone, thread from thread, thought from thought. His was the hunt that didn't end when the chase was complete and prey devoured. Ruins became stones became pebbles became dust became nothing. Even if her former people had made the gods, they had shaped these out of forces that were real, that had existed before. Like Edér, Thuwa still held on to some sort of belief, for good or ill.  
  
“It’s finally cold enough that even you put on a coat like a decent woman.” Durance came up behind. He walked with his stick in hand, though curiously it never made a noise as he tapped it along the ground.  
  
Eyes forward, she smiled. “You never wear one, old man. And you don’t like decent women.” She had indeed put on a cloak, but only a light one, a blue wrap that she had reclaimed from a torn Eothasian banner she found in the storeroom. She didn't mention that to Durance.  
  
The priest followed her eyes out over the landscape. “Surveying your new colony, eh, Watcher?”  
  
“It's my home now.”  
  
“Yet you’re wandering again.”  
  
“Only for a time. I’ll be back.” Thuwa glanced at him. “Will you?”  
  
“I think not. I’ve done all I can for you, and there’s another wench I mean to tame.”  
  
‘You haven’t tamed me.”  
  
His voice was fond. “No. But I will tame her.” Turning to Thuwa, the priest reached out a hand and cupped her cheek, gazing down at her with a stern expression. “You have been good to me, Watcher. That kind of weakness serves neither you or me well.” He paused. “And yet, it’s an affliction I’ve suffered gladly.”  
  
“As bad as the pox?” She laughed, reaching up to clasp his wrist.  
  
“More scars.”  
  
There was a silence before Thuwa spoke again. "She isn't worth all this rage."  
  
"You've made peace with your gods, now I'm supposed to just forgive mine? It doesn't work that way."  
  
They stood like that a while, not trading any more words. Finally he moved away. “Farewell, Watcher. Remember all that I taught you.”  
  
Her cheek felt hot where his hand had been. "You always have a home here, Durance."

If he heard her, he gave no sign.


End file.
